Hacking Group Organizes 'OpIsrael' Day of Attack

A coordinated cyber attack on Israeli websites has so far been relatively ineffective.

The international hacking group Anonymous and its followers had announced that Monday would be “Operation Israel,” or “OpIsrael,” a day of targeting Israeli websites in retaliation for Israel’s “assault on the people of Gaza.”

“On April 7, 2014, we call upon our brothers and sisters to hack, deface, hijack, database leak, admin takeover, and DNS terminate the Israeli Cyberspace by any means necessary,” Anonymous said in a message posted on YouTube. “We will not stop until the police state becomes a free state and Palestine is free.”

The websites of the Israel postal service and the Education Ministry came down briefly, Ynet reported. The hackers also published on line a list of phone numbers, emails and passwords of senior Israeli officials. A few private Israeli websites also have been brought down, according to Ynet.

The message from Anonymous read: “Through the use of media deception and political bribery, you have amassed the sympathies of many. You claim to want peace, yet the reality on the ground speaks differently. In fact your only goal is to better the lives of a select few while carelessly trampling the liberties of the many. You can NOT hide a demolished home. You can NOT hide the barrage of bullets you use to kill and maim Palestinians. You can NOT hide apartheid roads.

The further assault on the people of Gaza, who have been flooded by your sewage, terrorized by your military apparatus, and left to die at the border while waiting for medical attention will NOT be tolerated anymore. Your vicious campaigns to attack Palestinian solidarity groups worldwide through censorship and legal wrangling has also NOT gone unnoticed.”

The message said that Israel must “cease and desist any further military action and illegal settlements or the consequences will become worse with each passing hour.”

The attack comes exactly one year after an identical attack launched against Israel by Anonymous. Last year’s attack took down dozens of Israeli websites and saw published online a list of hundreds of Israeli email addresses and credit card numbers.